AL:ICE-9 (3 page)

In the bed to his right was the facility's commander, Sharon, fresh out of ICU and swearing up and down she was fit for duty, although no one was listening. To his left was one of the new recruits they brought in from Republic, and Katrese was her name. Having grown up in Republic, she was devastated to learn of the three deaths in the hangar. Two of the women they had lost had been close friends to her, and all excited to begin their new life here.

Resting now, Jake was bracing himself for round two of his ritual beatings though, as he’d been notified that Sara had learned of his adventures in the hangar and was on her way. She was currently in transit and would arrive within the hour. Besides working as his outstanding XO she was, without question, the love of his life.

This was not something he had ever publically disclosed however, as he was in somewhat of a precarious position with six other women, four of whom were either pregnant by him or had already borne him children. Linda was the most recent, having delivered a healthy baby girl named Tracy just a few weeks earlier. Named after Linda’s deceased mom, her sister Kathy was just as thrilled at the choice as anyone was. Jake insisted he be at every delivery and so far, he was 100%. Jessie, the last still pregnant, wasn’t due for a while, but he still got regular updates on her progress and tried to visit when he could. The whole arrangement still unsettled him at times, but the women all seemed satisfied with it.

This was all due to an effort by the ALICEs to provide a Jake fathered child for each of the eight ALICE locations, insuring there would never again be a chance of loss of lineage. Fortunately, with the discovery of Patti and Jacob in California, as they are Jake’s couple of great’s grandchildren, it forestalled the immediate need for any more children. As it was, the last two women on Jake’s “Hit” list were both just over 18 and the result of Jake’s all or nothing ultimatum.

When first approached with the proposition of “dating” his troops, Jake had stipulated that sleeping with any of them would create resentment and accusations of special treatment. The military refers to avoiding this as non-fraternization, and Jake agreed with it completely. He felt he was on safe ground insisting it had to be all or nothing. So he was completely floored when they all agreed for it to be “all,” he was completely unaware of the ALICEs influence in the women’s decision. Because these two were under age at the time, as far as Jake was concerned, he postponed any “relationships” with them for as long as he could.

After breakfast, and why the food always tastes worse in a hospital Jake could never understand, came the morning’s visitations. First on the list were the three women Jake had rescued, insisting on thanking him personally. He acknowledged their gratitude, and himself apologized for allowing them to be placed in such a position.

Next came the four who were the victims of the deception, apologizing for all the trouble and thanking him for letting them come anyway. Jake assured them no one held them responsible, and that everyone was happy to have them here. He wished them well and assured them he would be checking on them in the future.

What followed last was a blonde whirlwind. Sara burst into the room, still in her flight suit minus her helmet. She had hastily put her hair in a ponytail on her way in and rushed over to Jake, first kissing him square on the mouth. Finally drawing back, she smacked him firmly in the chest, providing an un-needed reminder of why he had his ribs wrapped.

“Oh My God, what the hell were you thinking?” Sara exclaimed.

Before Jake could respond, she continued, “There I was, trying to run things in your absence while you were gallivanting all over god's creation, when, what do I hear? Jake’s been shot and is in medical in Washington. AND I don’t even hear that until the next DAY?”

“I didn’t want you to worry” was all Jake could slide in before she continued, cutting him off.

“WORRY? Why would I be worried, I mean you get shot every day, right?”

By now, all the other patients were watching the exchange, most confused. Sharon however had a huge smile on her face, enjoying the front row seat to the show.

Jake held up both hands in surrender, wincing in the process, “OK, look I’m sorry, but I asked everyone to keep a lid on things until this morning. I knew you would come as soon as you heard and Heather insisted in sedating me so you would just sit fretting while I slept. This way we all got a good night’s rest.”

Sara just stood glaring at him for a few seconds, which seemed like hours to Jake. Soon enough, her expression softened, and she slid a chair up, next to his bed.

Taking her hand, he quickly changed the subject, asking for status on the various activities they had in flight, as well as a short mention of changes to the recruiting procedures. He didn’t want to get her going on that subject again, but clearly, things need to change. He did not want a repeat performance to what he had just been through in the hangar.

By the time they finished, it had been almost two hours and Jake was getting antsy. He was not one of those people who could lounge around in bed all day. He felt it was proper time for a medical release. As Heather made one of her regularly scheduled rounds, he asked as she made it to his bed.

“So doc when can I get up?”

Reviewing his vitals and then poking him in a few delicate spots, while assessing his response, she replied, “So long as you take it easy, you can go now. I have some pain meds for you, don’t skip them and if the pain gets worse, we need to know right away.”

“So I can go too?” Sharon asked from the next bed, motioning as if to get up.

“Not likely,” Heather replied, waving her back to bed, “you and I are going to spend some quality time together for a few more days,” she finished with a smile. Clearly, she was enjoying her newfound power over her boss.

With Sara helping him, Jake gingerly got up and dressed. He made the rounds to visit with all the other patients before leaving the infirmary, Sharon being the last.

“Ok, you listen to the doc and don’t try to rush your recovery,” he said to her.

“Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” she replied, and then added, “I know Hector has it covered, he’s a good guy. You know he was one of Robert’s men. They were a good find.”

“Yeah, we talked. And I agree they all seem to be rising to the top,” Jake agreed.

As they headed out, Sara commented to Jake, “Patti is going to be ecstatic to see you. She just finished up her analysis of the last engagement and is dying to do the review for you.”

Jake was not so enthusiastic about that news, he was positive it meant a lot more work coming his way.

Chapter 3

Patti was just finishing the review of her notes for her presentation to Jake and the senior staff. She had received word earlier that day that Jake was heading back to ALICE-1, where she had set up camp, so to speak. She could not speak for anyone else, but she tended to think of ALICE-1 as home. This was her first facility, the one where she first arrived as a recruit. While almost everyone tended to travel between locations, both for training and work, she was able to stay put for the most part and she liked that.

For the better part of a month, she had been working with the ALICEs and a team of analysts specifically assembled for the task. Their goal was to complete more than a review of the last battle, they were to take a step back and review all their activities and interactions with the NeHaw to date. So far they had defeated the NeHaw three times, a feat beyond reason considering everything involved. The big plus out of all that was they had established relations with the five other alien races in the sector the NeHaw called Nu Tau Beta.

Terrestrially, Jake and his recruits had occupied six of the eight ALICE facilities and established working relationships with a multitude of stable external communities. With those relationships came an expanded degree of civility to the areas participating, by organizing and arming forces to drive out the lawless. Accomplishing this feat in each local area was a group known as the community patrol. Each patrol, created and supported as an armed unit, was overseen by a nearby ALICE facility. With eyes everywhere, little escaped their attention.

The main goal of the patrols was to establish order and discourage lawlessness. While it was up to each region to interpret what lawlessness meant, if it violated the 10 Commandments or the Bill of Rights, you could be sure Jake would not approve. Moreover, make no mistake, if Jake did not approve, you were on very shaky ground.

Though he would never acknowledge it, Jake had the absolute last word, outside or inside the facilities. All the ALICEs identified him as the sole authoritative presence in any location, though the recently discovered new genetic additions, Jake’s two great grandchildren, Patti and her brother, extended that. With over 3,000 occupants and growing in the six activated locations, the staff and ALICEs were his to direct.

All the community patrol members at least knew of Jake. All knew what he was doing to better things for everyone. Each patrol group had town leaders who directed the day-to-day activities, but Jake was their field commander. As was usually the way in these cases, his embellished reputation had grown beyond absurd, but that too served a purpose. All understood, should anyone choose to go “freelance” with the gear provided them, Jake would be coming to collect.

With everything in order, Patti decided to get a bite to eat and clean up before the dog and pony show.

----*----

Jake and Sara arrived at ALICE-1 well after lunchtime. They each flew their own fighters down, but as Jake had mentioned to Sara before departing, this was to be Low and Slow. Inertial dampening or not, just the thought of being bounced around caused him to wince. For Jake, it was to be a minimum effort activity and while he could have had ALICE do the flying, his pride prevented those words from escaping his lips.

As his fighter settled in to an approach over the Nevada desert, so did a feeling of coming home. Jake had grown up in the southwest and while he had never called Nevada home, ALICE-1 certainly felt like it.

Once they set down in the hangar, a crowd of well-wishers descended upon the two. It was now common knowledge about Jake’s resolution to the hostage taking in ALICE-4. As was usually the case in these things, if a video was available, it spread like wildfire. Thankfully, someone had clearly intervened and the reception committee numbers were small. As he climbed down, he could make out several familiar faces in the group.

Facilities commander Linda was there leading the group, newborn Tracy in her arms. As commander, he expected her, but her sister Kathy was by her side, holding Timothy as well. It still amazed him that as awkward as this should be, all involved seem to take it in stride. To add to the mix, he noticed Sandy was there standing behind the two of them, smiling and waving.

Jake’s first thought was to run. It was like having your wife and ex-girlfriends all in the same room. Then he remembered that was his issue, they were all good with this, or at least they claimed they were. Still, he laughed to himself, thinking, the panic was hard to shake.

Sara was the first to reach the hangar floor, dropping her helmet in the fighter seat as she climbed down, leaving both hands free for hugs. Jake’s movements were a little slower as he gingerly repeated her actions. Emerging from around the nose of Sara’s fighter, everyone enveloped him in the celebration surrounding Sara.

Once all the kisses, hugs, and fatherly doting had subsided, Jake caught Patti’s attention.

“So I hear you are finally ready with your after action report?”

“Oh we have way more than that for you!” she replied with a smile.

“When?” he asked.

“Well, I know your fondness for meetings with food, so how about 6pm local in the large dining hall. That gives you time to clean up and rest if you like. We really need to include more than just the core team here,” she offered

“Think so, huh?” Jake replied, wary of what she had in mind, “OK, then you better work out the details on the links to the other locations as well.”

“Already taken care of, see you at 6,” she answered, then turned and hurried off. Jake would almost swear she was skipping as she headed into the facility doors.

----*----

At the appointed time, Jake found himself and Sara ushered into the large dining hall. They had managed to change clothes, showering together with a minimum of intimate contact. With his wrap removed, Sara could see the extent of the bruising on his ribs and berated him again for taking such foolish risks. Jake resisted the urge to remind her three lives were hardly trivial, instead he just “Yes Dear’d” her.

The room layout normally had all the tables in rows covering most of the exposed floor space, but for this meeting, all attendees occupied places at the perimeter, providing for a large open area in the middle. Once everyone settled in with food, with Jake in the front row, center position, Patti walked out into the open area.

“I want to thank everyone for coming. As a matter of procedure, can everyone in the other locations hear and see me OK?”

Jake was aware that all six active ALICE locations were participating, each set up exactly as they were, only seeing Patti in hologram instead of in person.

With no dissention, Patti continued, “Most of you are familiar with the after action analysis we do when we have any significant combat activity. Some have even worked on a couple of these with me including patrol skirmishes where the locals have asked for assistance. This is nothing like any of that. We started that way, but the deeper we got into the last engagement with the NeHaw, the more questions we had. What we are about to cover is, in part fact, and in part conjecture.”

After pausing to look around, Patti continued, “First of all, working backwards we all know Jake and the ALICEs whipped up some super radio bombs that kicked the NeHaw’s ass this last time, but not even Jake knew exactly why they worked. Even more to the point, we all had questions about how the original NeHaw crew died at first contact. There weren’t any super bombs used on them then?”

“Next, at the end of the last engagement, we thought we knew where the NeHaw home world was, based on the reverse vector they used to transmit. That turned out instead to be home of one of the Races we just signed a treaty with, or so we think.”

Milking the pause for all it was worth, Patti stared the room down before continuing, “And finally, why did the NeHaw send a battleship when every piece of evidence we had said that we should be seeing every ship from the adjacent sectors, the battleship was the longshot.”

Jake glanced around the room at that point, noting his granddaughter may have a flair for the dramatic, but she had their attention.

“Let’s start with the bombs. Jake, what gave you the idea for those?”

Caught off guard, Jake quipped, “Sorry, I didn’t know this was group participation.”

That brought a round of laughter and dropped the drama a notch or two.

After Patti gave him a dirty look, he continued, “I noticed the speaker in the ceiling of an office I was working in, I then asked ALICE about it. No NeHaw ship was so equipped. From there she provided medical reports from the early dissections listing ruptured organs in the brains of the NeHaw corpses. The final link was in the early testing the NeHaw equipment, the researchers identified all the interactive consoles emitted Radio Frequency instead of Audio Frequency, or sound waves as we know them.”

Jake took his own pause and then said, “We couldn’t nail down exactly what the right frequencies were so we created a multispectral device that we hoped would rupture those same organs.”

Patti jumped in and offered at this point, “In our after action research, ALICE provided information associated with this same affects from earths past. Apparently, before the NeHaw attack, the world’s navies used sound wave equipment called sonar, to see underwater. Unfortunately these sound waves were so strong they would kill marine mammals, disrupting internal organs.”

“I remember that!” Jake exclaimed, now positive that was what prompted his idea.

“We were able to determine, that while the NeHaw do shield naturally occurring RF,” Patti continued, ignoring the outburst, “the magnitude of the explosions so close to the hull completely overpowered the shielding.”

“But what about the first ship,” someone in the back asked, “there was nothing like that for them?”

“I’m glad you asked that!” Patti replied, pointing to the speaker.

That was so smooth, Jake was sure they were a plant!

“What have we been discussing here? Naturally occurring RF. Yes the NeHaw knew we used RF on earth, yes they were shielded for it like we use sound dampening materials, but what was the difference?”

While Patti paused looking around the room, Jake turned and rolled his eyes at Sara. Of course, no one would know this. He didn’t know the answer to this, but he gave her the moment.

Then Patti slowly said, “H D R F. This was the time in human history where naturally occurring RF contained embedded high-density digital content. It carried four times the volume in a normal data stream, and the NeHaw were taking it in unfiltered. It fried their organs like putting 120 volts through a 12 volt system.”

Jake wasn’t sure how many here would understand the analogy, but laughed to himself as it was her turn for the blank stares.

“Alright, so we can now understand what happened to the first NeHaw ship and the RF bombs,” Patti continued, apparently not waiting for questions about the relevance of voltage, “so what about their home world?”

“We presumed the NeHaw used point to point communications and thus once we knew which direction to look, we could find them. Turns out, it is not that simple. Even though they use light waves instead of sound waves, which travel much faster by the way, they still can’t reach the necessary distances in a timely fashion. What we learned from our new Treaty Partners is the NeHaw place Transmitter/Receiver/Repeater stations on every occupied world. No ship can communicate while in faster than light mode, but once they come out they immediately link with the closest receiver station. All communications relay from world to world until they reach their final destination.

For those of you studying Computer Science, think of each planetary relay station as a router forming a huge MPLS cloud. Dropping any single node just reroutes the traffic. Whatever these Transmitter/Receiver/Repeater units use, our new allies didn’t have a word for, but they could explain how they worked. Apparently, once a station is set up, it immediately creates communication tunnels to the nearest existing stations. These tunnels can take years to establish, but once they are up, it’s like an AC power link. Rather than DC, where current has to continuously travel the circuit, it simply alternates back and forth at varying frequencies.”

Jake could see some confused faces around the room, but before he could speak up, Patti offered, “Think of a solid pole between two people. If you push and pull one end of the pole, the push doesn’t travel the entire length, just the displacement travels. That gives them almost instant communications over great distances. And these things take no maintenance, the NeHaw just show up, set them up and leave, everyone on the occupied planets knows to stay clear of them.”

“Finally,” Patti announced, “we have the battleship itself. This is actually a multi-issue event. First, we discovered that every time a NeHaw commander dies, his ship does a burst transmit of all relevant data at the time including video and statistical content. Why this didn’t seem to happen when the first exploration ship crashed is still a mystery, but we know the first two combat engagements definitely triggered this event. A burst from action one sent the NeHaw a log of a single human fighter ripping apart the cruiser bridge, killing her captain. Bursts from the three cruisers in action number two show a captured cruiser and several fighters ripping apart three NeHaw cruisers, killing their captains.”

Pausing to take a much-needed breath, Patti glanced at Jake with a smile. She definitely loved this attention. She was so much like her great grandmother at this point, Jake thought.